New cases of COVID-19 reported in Two Rivers District

KEARNEY – Three (3) new cases of COVID-19 were reported today by Two Rivers Public Health Department, increasing the total to 994 in the seven-county region it serves.

New confirmed cases include:

Dawson County- 1

Buffalo County – 1

Phelps County – 1

No other new cases were reported in the Two Rivers district.

Two Rivers is reviewing and reconciling county totals to most accurately reflect current cumulative case numbers in the district. The DHHS dashboard is constructed based on the Two Rivers data set compiled through individual contact investigations. We are continuously working with DHHS to review and revise individual case numbers as they are reported to us, however duplicate tests may often not be immediately identified.

Total cases to date in the district’s seven counties are:

Dawson County – 816

Buffalo County– 135

Phelps County- 14

Gosper County– 13

Franklin County- 5

Kearney County– 11

Harlan County– 0

Total in District – 994

COVID-19 should be considered widespread throughout all the Two Rivers Public Health Department district, regardless of current county totals due to limited testing.

We are also excited to announce the launch of a new dashboard on our website which covers only the Two Rivers district. We are in the process of streamlining the data to reflect current numbers, and hope it will be a better way for our residents to keep track of what is happening in our area in terms of COVID-19 information.

Recent studies show that a significant portion of people with COVID-19 lack symptoms and those who eventually develop symptoms can pass the virus to others before showing symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC now recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (grocery stores, pharmacies, etc.) especially in areas of significant community-based transmission – https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/cloth-face-cover-faq.html .

Testing is available to the public at the discretion of health care providers. Individuals are more likely to be tested by if they are essential infrastructure staff, in direct contact with a laboratory confirmed case, a health care worker, first responder or age 65 or older. For more information, call Two Rivers Public Health Department at 888-669-7154 or visit www.trphd.org.

Two Rivers continues to advise citizens to stay home when experiencing illness and seek medical care when necessary.